This seems awfully fishy:

When he was hauled before Congress last week for sending those forged letters to lawmakers on climate change, astroturf lobbyist Jack Bonner pledged to make sure that no similar event ever happened again. As a centerpiece of that effort, Bonner announced that his firm had hired James Thurber, an American University political science professor, to act as an “independent ethics adviser.”

Bonner assured lawmakers that the new adviser “is well-regarded as maintaining the highest ethical standards and independence,” and “will review our policies and work with us to continue to improve our internal quality control system to the highest standards.” All in all, it sounded like a good idea.

But it’s fair to ask how independent Thurber really is.

Today, Roll Call, the Capitol Hill newspaper, ran an ad by the Center for Congressional and Presidential Studies (CCPS), the American University program that Thurber directs.

Here is the ad (click here for full size):

Kate Sheppard:

In an email to Bonner headed “Ready to Rumble,” Hawthorn lists seven key Democratic targets it believed could be pressured to vote against the bill. Hawthorn also named specific interest groups it hoped would write letters opposing the legislation—especially organizations “representing the interests of veterans, senior citizens, minorities, and other groups,” according to the documents. The email requests Bonner to produce five letters from such groups in the district of each targted lawmaker.

Here is the letter:

Here is Chairman Markey’s testimony:

Here is Rep. Periello’s testimony:

Here is Jack Bonner’s Testimony:

Here is Steve Miller’s Testimony:

Via Email.

Below is the statement of Eben Burnham-Snyder, spokesman for the Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming:

“Because all testimony was not received by the Select Committee two business days or more prior to the hearing, the Select Committee has decided to postpone the investigative hearing into fraudulent letters sent to Congress.

“The Majority Staff of the Select Committee forwarded all testimony to the Minority Staff immediately upon receipt. The Select Committee charter calls for all witnesses to file testimony ‘at least two working days in advance of his or her appearance.’ Unfortunately, that timeframe was not met for this hearing.

“Both Chairman Markey and Ranking Member Sensenbrenner take the rules of the Committee and the House seriously, and both agree postponing the hearing is the proper course of action.

“The Select Committee will re-schedule the hearing soon.”

Press Release from the Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming.

Chairman Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.) of the Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming announced today that he will be holding an investigative hearing into the fraudulent letters sent to Congress on clean energy and climate legislation. The Select Committee has now discovered more than a dozen fraudulent letters were sent to several members of Congress as part of an “Astroturf” campaign run by the firm, Bonner & Associates, and contracted by the American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity. This campaign was designed to influence members of Congress on the House-passed Waxman-Markey climate and energy bill.

The hearing will feature some of the central figures in the controversy, including victims of the fraud. The fraudulent letters were staged to appear as if they were sent by groups representing senior citizens, minorities and veterans.

While the hearing will focus on the specific events surrounding this fraud on Congress, the practice of “Astroturf” — corporate-funded activities that create the false appearance of a true grassroots movement — has come to the fore in American political discourse surrounding the debates over health care and energy legislation.

WHAT: Select Committee hearing: “Fraudulent Letters Opposing Clean Energy Legislation.”

WHEN: Thursday, October 15, 2009, 9:30 AM

WHERE: 210 Cannon House Office Building, Washington, DC and online.

WHO: Witnesses to be announced

Late update.

WITNESSES:
Mr. Jack Bonner, Bonner & Associates
Mr. Steve Miller, President and CEO, American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity
Ms. Lisa M. Maatz, Director of Public Policy and Government Relations, American Association of University Women
Mr. Hilary O. Shelton, Director and Senior Vice President for Advocacy and Policy, NAACP Washington Bureau

Washington Post:

Congressional investigators today said they have turned up a 14th forged letter that was sent to a Congressional office criticizing the House’s climate change bill, this one appearing to come from an American Legion post in Rocky Mount, Va.The letter, sent to the office of Rep. Tom Perriello (D-Va.), asks Perriello to “make sure the Waxman-Markey bill includes provisions to promote American energy independence, while protecting already cash-strapped constituents from increases in electricity prices.” It concludes, “Thank you for listening to concerns of vets in your district.”

But the letter actually appears to have been faked by a Washington lobbying firm working for the American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity, a Congressional spokesman said today. The lobbying firm, Bonner and Associates, has conceded that an employee forged letters to three Congressional offices, including Perriello’s, in the run-up to a vote on the climate bill. That employee has been fired, the firm said.

Here is the letter:

Letter 14 –

In case you haven’t been following this story, here is some background information:
At Least 3 Members of Congress Received Fraudulent Letters Paid for by Coal Companies
Markey Sends Letter to Clean Coal Coalition on Forged Letters
Five New Forged Letters Revealed in Anti Climate Bill Fraud Case
Bonner and Associates Accuses Temp Employee of Setting Them Up
Bonner Talking Points Instructed Employees to Lie to Generate Letters to Congress

I wrote last night about a series of new revelations in the case of the fraudulent climate letters to members of Congress. Throughout the day, Talking Points Memo has uncovered several additional developments.

• Astroturf Firm Bonner Institutes New No-Forgery Quality Control Policy
• Bonner Paid Productivity Bonus To Employee Who Forged Letter

Most importantly, TPM has obtained a copy of the letter Akin Gump sent to Congressman Markey’s office on behalf of Bonner and Associates. The letter included as an attachment a set of talking points and sample script employees working on the ACCCE campaign were given.

Crucially, the talking points specifically instructed employees to lie to the community organizations they were calling, telling them they were working with seniors/veterans groups and that other seniors/veterans groups had written the letter they would be signing. They were in fact working directly for a coal industry front group, and the letter was written by Bonner and associates.

Here is the text of the example script from the talking points:

I am working with seniors to stop an increase in their utility bills. Do you know any seniors that are struggling to get by on social security? {wait for a response} What would happen if their utility bill doubled? Would they not run the air-conditioner in the summer or not have heat in the winter? What else might they cut out of their budget to have electricity…food…medicine? I have a letter that other senior groups have wrote would you write a similar one (OR) would you sign a similar letter?

Here is a screenshot of the talking points (click for full size):

Remember the lobbying firm that got busted forging anti climate bill letters to Congress on behalf of a coal industry front group a few weeks ago?

In response to a harshly worded query from Representative Ed Markey, Chairman of the Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming, Bonner and Associates has lawyered-up in a major way and taken a highly defensive posture.

This WSJ story, published late Thursday, contains a series of revelations:

The Washington lobbying firm that sent fake letters to lawmakers purporting to be from nonprofit groups opposed to climate-change legislation was “the victim of a fraud” perpetrated by a temporary employee who joined the firm “with the pre-determined intent of engaging in fraudulent activity,“ a lawyer for the firm has told congressional investigators.

Unbelievable. This is the same firm that stayed silent about the fraudulent letters prior to the House vote on the American Clean Energy and Security Act, despite knowing they were fraudulent several days in advance. Now we are supposed to believe that this whole thing is some sort of nefarious plot by a temp employee to sully their (already completely sullied) reputation?

Go on:

The lawyer, Steven R. Ross, also suggested in a letter that a federal investigation into the matter may be under way.

Good to know. Steven Ross is with Akin Gump, a massive law firm that has represented hundreds of notable clients, such as Mobil, Pacific Gas and Electric, Lukoil, Natural Gas Clearinghouse, Union Carbide and the governments of Columbia and China.

The story that keeps giving:

In the letter to Rep. Edward Markey (D., Mass.), dated Aug. 12 and viewed by The Wall Street Journal, Mr. Ross, an attorney with Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP, said his client, Bonner & Associates, does not know “the complete motivation” of the employee but has referred the matter “to law enforcement authorities for proper investigation,” due to “the serious implications of his actions.”

This part about the “complete motivation” is tricky. On the one hand, it can be read — in the context of the “pre-determined intent” line above — as an insinuation that the temporary employee responsible for the letters was planted by political adversaries. On the other hand, the fact that a former employee described this type of deception as the norm rather than the exception points to a scenario in which the temp forged the letters because he or she knew that is what the bosses expected.

The story continues:

In his letter to Rep. Markey, Mr. Ross, Bonner’s attorney, doesn’t identify the Bonner employee who sent the fake letters but offers new details on how they were concocted, saying the employee in question “had the assistance of an individual located at the offices of a professional liability insurance provider who would sign the letters and fax them back” to the Bonner employee.

Odd to start pointing fingers two months after the fact, no?

The excuses keep coming:

The employee came to work for Bonner after answering an ad in Roll Call, a Capitol Hill newspaper, and worked for the firm for seven days before he was terminated.

Void of context, this seems like at least a halfway respectable excuse. But the fact is, Bonner and Associates always takes this fly-by-night approach to their work. Even in the midst of all this controversy they are hiring temps who can work well under pressure. It is far easier to deflect responsibility for mistakes and shady business practices when you can blame everything on a temp, right?

Finally, the ‘nobody could have predicted’ defense:

“While B&A takes full responsibility for what happened and recognizes that there are quality control and human resources improvements that can and will be made, it is difficult to defend against a person bent on committing fraud,” Mr. Ross’s letter states. “Due to being short-staffed and given the incredibly short time frame of this project” – less than two weeks – Mr. Ross says that “some letters were transmitted to Capitol Hill before they could be thoroughly reviewed.”

Who could have predicted that hiring basically anyone off the street, training them for two hours in a “white-collar sweatshop” and compensating them based on the quantity of letters they faxed to congress would lead to something like this?

Update: Bonner and Associates has now implemented a ‘No-Forgery’ policy.

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